Just trying to get through life without looking stupid

Cubs fans have lived full lives and died since the last time the Cubs won the World Series. Yet, pick any year and talk to a Cubs fan in March and they will say "This is the year!" Talk to them in mid-April and they say "Wait for next season!" It's a fun mix of optimism for the future and self-deprecating pessimism at the current season.

This year is different. I'm sitting quietly in the shadows watching the games fly by with win after win, but I'm afraid to point it out for fear of what might will probably happen. At this point, the Cubbies have a 98.8% chance of making the playoffs and an 88.7% chance of winning their division. That leaves me fairly confident that the Cubs will enter the playoffs but what will happen after that? This season seems too good to be true. It probably is. I can't help but be more than a little suspicious.

But let's say that the Cubs actually do make it all the way. Who will they face off against? I'm sticking with Tampa Bay. They continue to look strong. The Angels look good too but their division is pathetically weak. The AL East and the NL Central are the two toughest divisions this year and two teams are shining in each. It makes sense that they would meet. The Sox are starting to come on strong too, but I feel my head starting to asplode just thinking about a Cubs vs Sox World Series. Chicago would have a civil war.

The stat that continues to impress me is the run differential of the Cubs. They have never been able to mix run production and pitching like they have this year. The result is a +184 run differential which is 64% higher than Boston in second place in that category.

It's now late August. There is still plenty of time for this all to fall apart. It's hard to hold my dreams in check!

[All stats accurate as of 4pm EST on 8/26.]

I forgot to add photos into yesterday's post about the ride, so here we go. Head to the Motorcycle gallery and look at the newest 10 photos there for a glimpse of what we were up to. There were so many great photo opportunities along the way, but we were having too much fun riding to stop!

The longest ride I've made in one day was around 400 miles. I didn't break my single day record this weekend, but it was the longest overall trip I've ever done and my first overnight trip.

As I mentioned previously, the ride started yesterday with Tyla and I taking a trip through Stevens Pass to Leavenworth and ending at The Gorge in George, WA. I was a bit nervous about taking her on a 220 mile ride, but she did great and was even comfortable enough to fall asleep for a bit. (Don't worry, it's not as unsafe as it sounds. Ask Laura. She does it all the time with Matt.)

On Saturday, I met BenH (from work), MattM and Dustin (one of Matt's friends) in Ellensburg. I was a bit nervous about our 270 mile day since I had zero sleep the night before. I grabbed a one hour nap while the three of them ate breakfast in Ellensburg. You know you're tired when you can pass out in laying on blacktop in an Arby's parking lot. That nap refreshed me and we took off on a gorgeous ride down Canyon Road to Yakima. The scenery on the east side of the mountains is so different from over here. I wish I had more pictures but I really felt like I was in a miniature Grand Canyon. If I dropped you there, you'd swear you were in the southwest somewhere.

When we hit Yakima, we headed west on Highway 12 which provided some amazing views of both Rainier and Mt. St. Helens at the same time. I also spotted Mt. Adams and what I believe was Mt. Shushkan. If you look at those on a map you'll realize what an incredibly clear day it was. Those mountains stretch from almost Canada down to southern Washington.

The highlight of the trip was definitely NF-25 and NF-90. They are national forestry roads and they were a complete blast to ride. I wish I had some device that measured how often my bike was upright (traveling in a straight line.) I bet we were in corners 90% of the time and those roads stretched for about 60 miles. It's highly recommended. Keep your speed in check though. Those roads are not well maintained and contain many many bumps and dips in awkward spots. When you're on those roads, it's easily two thirds motorcycle traffic.

The three other riders took a trip up and back to view Mt. St. Helens. This was about 1pm in the afternoon and I was feeling tired again. I let them take that little spur and I caught a great nap on the side of the road.

We stayed overnight in Vancouver, WA and had dinner at Red Robin (where else?) I was anti-social and went to bed early to catch up on some sleep. 11 hours later I was finally feeling refreshed and ready for the drive home.

We took much the same route home except we came up the east side of Rainier instead of going back through Yakima. Unfortunately we got a bit split up, but we all made it home safely. It was raining pretty hard by the time we got home, but if it has to rain, it's nice to have it happen when you're an hour from home.

All in all it was an incredible trip. I wish I had more pictures, but I was having so much fun driving down those roads that I didn't want to stop. A motorcycle was the perfect way to experience this trip. It made me even more sure that it's time to upgrade my bike. I even got to chat with someone at a gas station who owned the bike I want (2008 Concours 14.) We'll have to see what happens in my bank account but this might be in my future. That 720 mile trip would have been much more comfortable (and fast) on the Concours. My bike held up well though so I can't complain.

Thanks to all the guys for letting me come along and thanks to Matt for planning everything. I only have one question: where are we going next?!

We had been waiting for the big Jack Johnson concert all summer and the day finally arrived! Tyla arrived at the house bright and early on Friday morning. We hopped on the motorcycle and took off up 203 to 2 and headed east through Stevens Pass. After a quick (and frigid) stop at Stevens Pass Ski Area, we continued south to Leavenworth. We had lunch, perused a few shops and then headed down 97 to Ellensburg to meet Tim and Chelsea for the final few miles to The Gorge.

None of us had been there before and didn't really know what to expect. We got there early enough to set up camp in a big field/parking lot and then walked about 15 minutes over to the amphitheater. The area is ginormous. We found a grassy spot center stage about 3/4ths of the way up the hill. If you want to sit closer, you should get there more than 1.5 hours before the show starts. I'm not complaining though. The whole night was awesome.

The show started with the Culver City Dub Collective. I'd never heard of them before but they were decent. Rogue Wave played next. I'm not a fan of their stuff so Tyla and I went in search of food and drinks while the lines were shorter. Jack Johnson finally came on and played a great set including my favorite (Flake) and Tyla's favorite (Bubbly Toes.) After a five song encore, the show was over.

It was really nice to walk back to the campsite instead of driving home, but the party was just beginning for most of the 20,000 concert goers. I'd say at least half of them were camping with us and 97% of them were drunk, high, or both. Thankfully we weren't very close to any of the loudest parties and we headed for the tents. The girls both said they slept but Tim and I were up pretty much all night. Oh well, it was a good experience.

Here are some tips if you're going to The Gorge:

• Don't go the day before you have to take a drug test for work. The weed is unavoidable. I started counting the number of times I smelled it, but after Jack Johnson came on, it was non-stop until later in the night.
• Bring earplugs if are camping.
• Don't forget to use the ear plugs. I didn't realize until the morning that I had earplugs in my motorcycle bags, but I forgot to use them. I'm a moron.
• The earlier you get there, the better. We arrived at the campsite around 4:30 and got to the hill around 5:30. We were probably mid pack for both arrivals.

All in all, I'm really glad that we got a chance to experience a concert there. It's not a great place to actually see the band and hear the music, but I'll always remember the trip! (More about the rest of my weekend tomorrow.)

I have added photos from The Gorge and four from the motorcycle ride leading up to it.

The Gorge Amphitheatre is one of the most popular concert venues in Washington. It's over on the other side of the mountains in George, Washington and regularly hosts enormous concerts like DMB, The Who, and John Mayer. It's also the home of the Sasquatch Music Festival. The website says they can accommodate 20,000 people at a single concert!

I've never been to The Gorge before, but that's about to change. Chelsea, Tim, Tyla and I are heading over there today to see Jack Johnson! To complete the experience, we will be camping there overnight. You can be sure we'll have plenty of stories and pictures when we get back!

Press 1 to leave a message, or wait until the beep. Press 5 to page this person. Press 6 to hear more options."

I've heard that a bazillion times, but I never think about it. Today I did. Paging? When I think of pagers I think of drug dealers from the 90s and sneaking out of class in high school to send messages to Scott on his pager. Then I'd rush back to the class room, wait for his pager to go off, and then wait for him to start laughing when he deciphered the message.

But seriously. What is paging and why do I want to do that? I called my own voicemail and it's slightly different.

At the tone please record your message. When you are finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options. To leave a call back number press  5.

A call back number? How does that get displayed. I searched around on the web and tried it out on my phone. It turns out that pressing 5 lets you type in a 16 digit number which is then delivered to the handset as an SMS message. On the phone, you can easily select the number and dial it back.

I'd love to know how many people actually use this. Why wouldn't you just use a text message to begin with? And if you call someone and they don't answer, why are they going to call you back just because you send them your number?

The whole thing seems goofy to me, but at least I understand my options.

"Ben, your blog is boring." I hear that regularly, but the frequency does fluctuate. Short answer, the last two months have been awesome, but not inherently bloggable. Besides, if a boring blog really concerned you, you wouldn't still be reading. After 6 years, do you really expect anything different?

The good news is that I have some very exciting and very bloggable stuff on the horizon. On Friday, Tyla and I are taking the long way to The Gorge on my motorcycle where we'll meet Tim and Chelsea for a sold out Jack Johnson concert and overnight camping. On Saturday morning, I meet up with MattM and BenH in Ellensburg for a trip past Yakima, Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens. We'll stay overnight in Vancouver, WA (home of NASCAR driver Greg Biffle) and come back on Sunday through Enumclaw, WA (home of NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne.)

The fun continues next weekend as Mom and Dad come into town. I reserved a condo in Whistler Village and we'll be spending our time riding the gondola and lifts up to Whistler peak, hiking, sight seeing, sampling the fun stores and restaurants in the village, and even a zip line adventure.

Looking a bit further down the calendar I see the Puyallup Fair, the Orange County Chopper guys live and in person and a trip to Syracuse the last weekend of September (attn: Abendroths!)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!